|
|
Post by spiritandsand on Jan 15, 2013 7:55:27 GMT -5
Aira sat squeezed between Henry and Pru in a slightly odd position in order to spare her damaged leg for further bumps. It felt surreal to do something normal like sitting in a car in this deserted ruin they despite everything still called earth. Henry managed to start the motor with help from the wires hanging down below the steering wheel, and they began their trip to the supermarked.
She didn't say anything for a long time; her mind was grinding like mad gears, also she focused on looking at the road ahed so that she wouldn't get carsick. Pru tilted over to her sleeping against her shoulder, and Aira stroke her forehead when the girl began to make low whining sounds in an attempt to chase away her nightmares.
"Tell me about yourself", it suddenly flew out of her mouth, "what did you want to be when you were a child."
These direct and highly out-of-place question was asked to keep them busy thinking of something else than their nasty situation - thinking of something nicer. The look she sent him was filled with both stress and willpower - she hadn't felt this positive for 3 years, although there was a long way up to a relaxed state of mind.
|
|
|
|
Post by vampirechicken on Jan 15, 2013 8:15:16 GMT -5
Henry turned the vehicle onto the road at a rocky start as it struggled to roll over the grass filled cracks and lumps of weeds which had overtaken the once urban environment. He turned onto a side street, eager to avoid the stores they had run from, the looters friends would be sure to find his body soon. The cars windscreen had already been taken out completely by a tossed bottle on his way out of Dalton, only 3 days ago.
And now he was driving back that way again, why?
He glanced at Pru dozing off against Airas shoulder, gun hugged to her chest. Apparently these two strangers were counting on him to look after them, even Aira who seemed capable enough on her own.
Henry was not always a hero, far from it. He wasn't even a good husband.
Before the disaster, many a lady had found their way into his bed in the short holiday away from poor Jessie. He had been despicable, hedonistic and selfish. To think that these girls were now putting there lives in his hands was laughable... once.... at least he hoped he was a better man now.
He needed to get Pru to her friends in the South-east, he would take the highway a few miles and take an exit before he reached the town.
Airas questions caught him off guard, lost in his own thoughts.
“Uhh... well I...” he stared at the road trying to remember how to converse. “When I was a child I wanted to be a cowboy... or a dinosaur.” he decided to tell her something weird and maybe make her smile. “What about you then?” he glanced quickly at her and flashed a charming smile, smiling was something he hadn't done in a long time.
It was a few minutes after she replied when they turned onto the highway, Henry watching over his shoulder for signs of life before moving out into the open. The highway looked more like a green field now than a road, but it was flatter than the rubble on either side of it.
After about 5 more minutes the supermarket appeared by the right side of the road, still large and mostly intact. The lack of looter decorations (corpses and body parts) marked it as free from the vicious people. But it was still possible that it might be filled with wild animals or even infected.
Henry parked the car, hopped out and took his shovel from the back tray.
He pondered leaving the girls in the car but decided that he would prefer them close enough to defend them if trouble arose.
“Keep a sharp eye out.” he suggested, not knowing what to expect, but his supplies were running low and there were two more mouths to feed now.
((Order from now, Jessy, Alex, Maria, Vlad))
|
|
|
|
Post by alexharvey on Jan 15, 2013 15:43:01 GMT -5
Pru slid out of the car, releasing the safety catch on the rifle, pressing the wood to her shoulder and staying alert.
She followed Henry and Aira carefully over the street, still quite twitchy from her nightmare, with heavy guts and slightly shaky legs.
She thought she saw things in every damn corner and simply decided the adults would keep cool heads. They would alert her if there was something to shoot at.
((DA SHORTEST POSSSSTTTTT))
|
|
|
|
Post by spiritandsand on Jan 15, 2013 16:54:41 GMT -5
Henry's plan to make Aira smile succeeded very well, the total random answer made her tilt her head backwards in a short laughter consisting of only two or three "ha"s before she embarrased snapped her mouth together abruptly preventing more noise from comming out.
She coughed once still grinning before she answered;
"I wanted to be a full-time artist with my own family and a dog named Casten", she said in the same joking tone as he had done, but it was actually true. She had said some pretty funny things when she was a kid, and her lips curled upwards when thinking back.
When they arrived at the supermarked she grabbed her bag to make sure it was still there. Her walk was still slightly troubled because of her wound, but it was better than before it had been cleaned and stitched. At least she was able to keep up with the others.
She wrinkled her nose and made a serious face as they got closer.
"There's something here that doesn't smell good", she said skeptic, and sniffed to the air like a dog although the scent was gross.
|
|
|
|
Post by vladimir on Jan 15, 2013 17:12:43 GMT -5
Rey heard them enter before he saw them, glancing down at the floor he affirmed that the sound of the door opening with its hallmark tinkling hadn't been just imagination. Long shadows poured out across the floor on the side of the cashier's desk closest to the door. His heart leaped into his chest then, his breathing became hurried and his uncovered eye watered fiercely. These were not the first survivors he'd experience in consciousness, but they were the first who had arrived at such a time as to render him incapable of hiding away in his usual far corners. With a gargantuan effort, Reinhardt cocked the rifle (a sound which echoed and carried far across the expansive wreck of the supermart, much to his horror) and prepared for a fight.
Despite having been a vessel for the infection, the man was less violent than ever; it had something to do with the moment in which he'd regained his lucidity. It had been a terrible way to wake from a stupor, starving and pained with the after-aches of a terrible disease, his kidneys so sore that every movement of his abdomen brought a spasm to him. But worst of all was that this awakening took place in him whilst he was half-buried in the body cavity of some animal. What it was he didn't know, but he was certain from its size and shape that it hadn't been human. Too small, even for a child, he had told himself day after day, every time he woke up and sometimes on the nights he couldn't sleep. The wash of mental faculties was overwhelming after the raging, starving, violent state of feral madness he'd gone into, a sensation not unlike collapsing from exhaustion after sprinting too far for too long, and it was with the taste of warm blood in his mouth that he remembered how to sense the world around him. He'd wanted to spit it out, but the flesh was thick and rubbery and he was so surprised that he swallowed instead, spending his first half hour of lucidity trying not to throw up onto the concrete of the parking lot. The experience, the intimacy with blood and fury had left him a quieter, secretive version of himself, the possibility that he might revert to the animal cravings that had lead up to that rude awakening kept him afraid of a fight.
'Please don't come here,' he thought desperately. 'There is nothing for you here, please go home.'
|
|
|
|
Post by vampirechicken on Jan 16, 2013 2:14:31 GMT -5
Henry sniffed the air vaguely at Airas words, she may have been right. Something smelled sick, like rotting flesh. It could have been a dead animal just as likey as an infected. He led them onwards anyway, they needed food. Infected were easy enough to kill, it was the looters that were the real danger.
"I hope you can use that." He commented about the kids gun, and walking ahead of her. He also gave Aira a sympathetic look seeing her struggle with her leg. He couldn't leave her on her own though.
Anyone who'd ever seen a horror film would know that splitting up was a bad idea.
Henry paused and looked behind them across the overgrown carpark before creeping into the shadows of the derelict building, he cursed the tinkle which alerted any inside to their presence.
"It looks like it's been cleared out." He said quietly, sounding slightly defeated. The shelves and tables were bare and overturned as he could see in the dim lighting. "We should take a look around, maybe there's something left out the back...." he began to say when a sudden click echoed across the enormous room.
"Get down." Henry hissed at the two girls, freezing in his tracks "Who's there?!" he yelled. Usually he had an 'attack first, ask questions later' policy on mysterious gunmen, looters didn't tend to bargain with survivors.
But he was reluctant to have an open firefight when the only gun they had was in the hands of a child and Aira was injured. Diplomacy would have to save them.
|
|
|
|
Post by alexharvey on Jan 16, 2013 8:06:37 GMT -5
When the clicking haled through the store Pru flinched as if she had been punched, the rifle snapped up, her arms tense, the cold metal pressed against her cheek. She surveyed the store over the split visor on the rifle.
Whether she could use this thing? Hell yes. The grave of cans in Rey's backyard was the silent proof to that. Only she had never shot anything that looked and possibly talked back at her. It was why her neighbor had agreed to teach her at all, the silent knowing that someday she might have to shoot in order to survive in this world. That is what this land had evolved to. Shooting was a necessity, and the world didn't care whether it bothered you or whether you were only a kid. Neither did Infected or looters or whatever you met on your way.
Pru knew that, and she knew she could shoot whatever would attack. But she didn't know if she really could DO it. She bit her lip, her eyes sharp and aware. If the case came she would see if she could actually pull the trigger. In the end it was only a small move with her finger and she would be able to will her hand to do it independent of her mind.
|
|
|
|
Post by spiritandsand on Jan 16, 2013 9:57:04 GMT -5
The sound revealing that they were not alone made Aira perform a roll to the left hidding behind a desk that rather convenient must have been pushed out from one of the nearby stores for whatever reason. She acted on pure instincts and reflexes with the homemade knife in hand and eyes scanning the entire area for potential movements.
Aira didn't know if she thought that Henry was a fool, or being clever revealing their presence. She decided that the choise he had made might lower the others' guard - how many there were was yet unknown - and frankly she didn't felt like fighting at the moment, especially now when there were more than her own life at risk.
|
|
|
|
Post by vladimir on Jan 16, 2013 12:02:42 GMT -5
Reinhardt was terrified. They knew he was here and he was armed, and in all likelihood they too were bearing arms. He doubted they'd hesitate to use them, after all, they had to be brutal to survive this long and he was a crime against nature directly linked to the beasts they'd been fighting off for the last few months. His options were limited, that much he knew. If he waited they may choose to sweep through the store or become violent. Sure, they might leave, but that was a big might and the chances of it actually happening seemed small considering his luck. Finally he reached a resolution; peacemaking was the best option.
Turning where he knelt, Reinhardt shouldered his gun and stood up slowly, his one eye narrowed in a critical squint. The three survivors standing by the entrance were terribly normal, perfectly human and very much alert. The first he'd seen this close in a long, long time, a child and a woman and a man, the little troop looked to be nearly a whole family. A child, a woman and... a child... a child. He knew her. Reinhardt knew her. There, in front of him, was the girl who'd lived next door. The same girl he'd taught to shoot, to hike, to cane a rattlesnake if she had the misfortune of stumbling onto one out in the yard-- something which had happened with some frequency. Prudence Robinson.
Rey's heart twisted painfully at that sight and he found his gun dipping down into a disarmed position. Attempting to regain control of the weapon, to pull it back up, he found that his fingers were trembling. In fact, as he then realized, he was literally shaking in his boots. The overwhelming presence of reality, remnants of the old world, were too much of him. He prayed to any god there was that she would not know him.
“Take what you need and go,” he said, his voice cracking halfway through. He'd forgotten how words felt, how he sounded when he spoke. He wanted suddenly to say more, to speak to them, to connect, but at the same time he was too afraid of judgment and rejection to open that door. Instead he left it at that, going silent and clutching his gun tight against his chest, shaking like a leaf the whole way.
|
|
|
|
Post by vampirechicken on Jan 17, 2013 4:39:21 GMT -5
Henry certainly wasn't being a fool, he had recognised the click for a gun, and the bell ringing when they entered the room was more than enough to announce their presence to anyone in the room. He knew that whomever was inside had already seen them a mile off.
The only thing to do was fight or try to bargain with whoever it was.... and apparently his plan had worked, and better than he'd dared to hope.
The figure across the room was hidden in shadows, but he appeared and sounded human from his clothes and voice. Henry lowered his shovel, not that a shovel would have been much use against a gun in the first place but he did it to signal a sort of truce.
"We didn't come to rob yer, I thought this place was empty." Henry replied loudly enough that his voice would carry across the room. "If you have any extra fuel or food I'm sure we can barter." he added, sometimes people traded things to him in exchange for him doing repairs.
He took a step or to forward into the shadows to see the man better. He seemed to be wrapped up in bandages so thick that only one eye was visible under his hat.
"Are you injured?" Henry added tentatively.
|
|
|
|
Post by alexharvey on Jan 17, 2013 9:47:52 GMT -5
At first Pru kept observing the rising figure in the shadow through her visor. Only when Henry signaled his diplomatic intentions did she lower the rifle, still holding it at ready and not bothering to secure the catch. She kept looking the man up and down, he was really wrapped in bandages all over. Maybe the man was actually injured. Then again there was a bandana around his lower face, the hat and the long coat only added to her image of a wildwest robber. He couldn't just be injured, he must've been hiding something. And he had a rifle similar to hers. She squinted. The thing was hidden behind his broad back, so she couldn't make out it's details.
Parts of his skin were showing beneath the bandages, not just pale skin. White skin. She frowned. She knew a person with white skin. Patches of such. But it couldn't be him. He had gone the exact opposite direction. He had evacuated in time. Maybe it was the same syndrome. Yet she really needed to see that rifle and his eyes now.
She shuffled after Henry. The guy still had a rifle. And it couldn't be Rey. Rey was evacuated and safe. Far away from here.
It could be one of the scale faces. Pru had heard the few men left in town talk about them. The half infected. Those who turned back and did not necessarily lose their mind.
Whatever he was and whatever his intentions were, he had a gun. And Pru was not going to lose these people that were willing to take care of her too. Not again.
|
|
|
|
Post by spiritandsand on Jan 18, 2013 12:54:34 GMT -5
Aira frowned when she heard the stranger speak.
She had only studied the scale faces from afar, but the stench of bile was not to be mistaken; and this guy was reeking of it.
So why did he not attack them? She had seen them rip up dead bodies in vile frenzy, and they even ate their own kind if one of them showed sign of weakness. Perhaps this stranger was one of the "cured". How ironic and bitter as the bile leaking from their skin. Poor man. She had to admit that she pity his state, still she would rather be careful than caring; who knows how much of his sanity was left.
Aira decided to keep her guards up and let Henry do the bargaining while she thoroughly let her eyes roam the place looking for supplies, and potential hideouts and exits if that would be necessary.
|
|
|
|
Post by vladimir on Jan 18, 2013 15:02:47 GMT -5
Reinhardt could tell that Prudence was looking at him and, much to his dismay, appeared to be considering him deeply. Or was he just being paranoid? No, he couldn't take chances. With a Herculean effort, the ginger began to step back shakily into the shadows as as to make it harder for her to recognize him. He was banking on her giving up at that, trying to be discrete about by responding to Henry. Of course it didn't work because he found that he'd lost his ability to control his tone, his voice coming out almost desperate sounding. “No! No, ah ain't hurt, ah'm... ah was, ah'm recovering,” he found himself panicking then. “There are cereals in the very back, some coats, some cans, just take what you want and go. Ah don't need anything in return. Please,” he hoped they'd take his appeals seriously, wracked by short tremors. Cradling his shotgun against his chest, Reinhardt tried to get a hold on his nerves but found them failing fast.
|
|
|
|
Post by vampirechicken on Jan 18, 2013 16:30:13 GMT -5
Henry stopped trying to approach the man, half because he heard the desperation in his voice but also because the smell of oozing flesh hit his nostrils like a sack of bricks. A recovered then, he hadn't met one before but he knew that they existed. He reserved his opinion for the moment and listened to him.
Unfortunately Henry mistook the mans panicked voice for meaning that he was hiding something. Maybe an ambush, maybe the back room was filled with others ready to feast on their flesh. Henry hadn't survived this long by being gullible, he took a slow step backwards and raised a hand signaling for the others to back off towards the door.
"No worries mate, I wouldn't feel right taking your things for nothing. We'll just be headin' off." He said carefully, he wished that he had more ammo for his shotgun which was tucked uselessly under the seat of his car.
|
|
|
|
Post by alexharvey on Jan 18, 2013 17:32:47 GMT -5
Pru didn't budge when Henry moved backwards and signaled them to move out. She squinted at the gun in the bandaged man's hands. It was simple, only a few fine markings were on the metal parts. And there was an engraving on the hilt. Her insides dropped when she read it, her eyes flicking up to the shadowed face again, rising her rifle and straightening her back into the proper shooting position.
"Where did you get that shotgun", she asked. She held her rifle at ready, constantly aiming. She wasn't stupid and she knew Henry was leaving for them, to protect them and that he only meant well. But she had to know. Pushing her foot forward carefully she approached the figure only slightly. A bitter taste swept into her direction, she didn't let it show.
She tried to get a look at his eyes, noticing a red shade in the right one. Maybe it was just a shadow. Wasn't it? But it all fell into place, the patches fit, the fingertips, the eyes, the gun, the stature.
But how. How could that be?
She swallowed, the rifle still pointing ahead.
"Rey? Rey is that you? That...that can't be, right? You....you went the other direction...right? Oh god. What...what happened to you?"
|
|
